Every Sunday, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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I forget which author said it, but I remember that she wrote that Advent was a season of spiritual road construction. Today’s readings use that theme.
John the Baptist references the Old Testament to talk about a road to be built that will make it easier for God to come to us. Using the image of flattening mountains, filling in valleys, and straightening out the curves, a way will be prepared for the way of the Lord.
I can relate to this image. When I travel to see my family outside of Hershey, PA, I usually use the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is a cluster of tunnels and bridges, with roads that are cut into the mountains. Looking at it from one point of view, the turnpike is a series of valleys that have been filled in, mountains that have been leveled, and curves that have been straightened (although going through the Laurel Highlands still proves to be a challenge). A drive that once took many more hours on the up, down and winding roads of the older Route 30, is now cut in half. And the PA Turnpike is now being widened even more! I guess the highway we build to God must be under constant construction as well.
But how do we build a highway for the Lord? How do we make it easier for God to break into our human heart? We do it by following the advice of John the Baptist: we turn our hearts toward the Lamb of God. He uses the word, “Repent.”
We built this road only with the help of God, the master builder, and we make use of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and penance. We built it with God’s help through prayer and good works. We build it by studying our scriptures and knowing the teachings of our Church. We build it by following the example of Jesus and walking in his footsteps. He is the path upon which we build our road to the Kingdom, so that God can come swiftly to us, when He judges the time to be right.
Jesus would also warn us that not every road will lead to spiritual success. He says that that road to perdition is wide. Instead, he would advise us, “Take the narrow gate.”
And, perhaps in this Advent season of spiritual road construction, we can reflect on the fact that a narrow gate has a way of slowing us down. Like the traffic that sometime occurs around our cities, slowing down makes us pay attention.
And perhaps that is a good idea when we construct the Advent spiritual road between us and God. We should slow down and get ready for the journey ahead. We should quiet ourselves enough to listen to God’s voice calling us by name. We should be still enough to notice our surroundings and be aware of the grace of God that is all around us.
And then, we will be good construction workers, who know how to lay the roadbed on a solid foundation, who know what to tear down and what to build up, who know what to use and what to discard. We should have one goal in mind: to build a spiritual highway for the Lord to come to us, by making it easy for him to enter our lives and blasting away at all those things that make it difficult for him to come to us.
So, this week we take heed of the advice of John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
Have a blessed week everyone.